China ‘backyard’ pig farmers squeezed as sector scales up

BEIJING: Walking through swarms of flies at his piggery on the outskirts of Beijing, Liu Jin shows off 1,500 hormone-free black hogs raised for China’s growing organic meat market.

Liu employs a dozen people to look after the swine that are kept in indoor sties and outdoor pens -- the type of large-scale operation China hopes will one day replace the millions of “backyard” farms across the country.